EMT/MET plasticity in cancer and Go-or-Grow decisions in quiescence: the two sides of the same coin?

Molecular Cancer

Review

Noura Alibrahim¹  Azamat Akhmetkaliyev²  Darya Shafiee²  Eugene Tulchinsky³ 

[1]Al-Mana College for Medical Science, Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

[2]Department of Biomedical Sciences, Nazarbayev University School of Medicine, 020000, Astana, Kazakhstan

[3]Department of Biomedical Sciences, Nazarbayev University School of Medicine, 020000, Astana, Kazakhstan

[4]Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

关键词: Cancer;    EMT;    MET;    Stem cells;    Quiescence;    Cancer stem cells;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12943-023-01793-z

 received in 2023-04-06, accepted in 2023-05-20,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and mesenchymal epithelial transition (MET) are genetic determinants of cellular plasticity. These programs operate in physiological (embryonic development, wound healing) and pathological (organ fibrosis, cancer) conditions. In cancer, EMT and MET interfere with various signalling pathways at different levels. This results in gross alterations in the gene expression programs, which affect most, if not all hallmarks of cancer, such as response to proliferative and death-inducing signals, tumorigenicity, and cell stemness. EMT in cancer cells involves large scale reorganisation of the cytoskeleton, loss of epithelial integrity, and gain of mesenchymal traits, such as mesenchymal type of cell migration. In this regard, EMT/MET plasticity is highly relevant to the Go-or-Grow concept, which postulates the dichotomous relationship between cell motility and proliferation. The Go-or-Grow decisions are critically important in the processes in which EMT/MET plasticity takes the central stage, mobilisation of stem cells during wound healing, cancer relapse, and metastasis. Here we outline the maintenance of quiescence in stem cell and metastatic niches, focusing on the implication of EMT/MET regulatory networks in Go-or-Grow switches. In particular, we discuss the analogy between cells residing in hybrid quasi-mesenchymal states and GAlert, an intermediate phase allowing quiescent stem cells to enter the cell cycle rapidly.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

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